Swept Again

It’s time to admit that I have been wrong all season long: every doubleheader in baseball history is not a split.

I’ve been joking about that since opening day, but last Sunday the Rainiers were swept in a twinbill at Colorado Springs.

Yesterday it happened again: Tucson swept the Rainiers, winning the opener 5-3 and taking the second game, 2-0.

The first game saw Hector Noesi get singled to death. He allowed 11 hits – ten singles and a double – in 4.2 innings, totalling five runs. Seven of the ten singles were ground balls that found holes in the infield. He didn’t pitch a great game or anything, but his biggest problem on Sunday was bad luck.

The second game featured very little offense. David Pauley tossed a complete game and allowed only two runs, but took the loss when Tacoma was shut out on three hits. It was the ninth time Tacoma has been shut out this year.

It was sweep day in the PCL – there were four doubleheaders yesterday, and all four of them were sweeps. Tacoma was the only road team to get swept – in the other three twinbills, it was the home team that got swept. More details in the links below.

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We have news about two recently released Rainiers pitchers.

Scott Patterson has signed a minor league deal with the New York Mets. One would assume he is joining their Triple-A team in Buffalo.

Jarrett Grube signed with the Angels, but he is not initially going to Salt Lake. He’s been assigned to Double-A Arkansas for now.

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Tonight’s game is at 7:05, and you can listen on South Sound Sports 850 AM or via the online stream right here. Tacoma starts RHP Erasmo Ramirez (3-2, 2.88) against Tucson RHP Matt Palmer (6-7, 6.18).

The Nine Game Mega Series currently has Tucson leading, 4-3. The Rainiers need to win tonight and tomorrow in order to claim the Nine Game Mega Series trophy. If the Rainiers can’t take it down, they will get another chance in late August – when the Rainiers play Nine Game Mega Series II, against Las Vegas.

Links:

We start with my Rainiers game story from The News Tribune. Not much to it, today, due to the night doubleheader giving us no chance of writing a quality story before the paper’s deadline.